Safari Books

Summary

Safari Books Online is a digital library that includes books on a wide rage of technical and professional development needs, video content, short form content and evolving manuscripts.

How to get a license

• Paid Contributors sign up on Service Now.
  • 1. Go to category Software Request and click on Software Applications
  • 2. Go to category Other Applications and click Safari Books Online
  • 3. Fill out fields and a confirmation will be sent with 5 days.

• Volunteer Contributors file a bug under Participation Infrastructure.
  • 1. In the Component field select Safari Books.
  • 2. In cc line add: dianderson@mozilla.com
  • 3. In Summary line write License for Volunteer Contributor.
  • 4. In Description, indicate the name and e-mail you want to use for initial sign up. You can always change later.

How to use your Safari Books Online account

• Watch this PopCorn overview made by Safari Books Online Senior Account Executive, and Mozilla enthusiast, Brian Geller.
• Watch this PopCorn demonstration made by Safari Books Online Team member, Komal Gandhi.

Request a Book

If you don't see a title you're looking for, you can use this link to request it

Usage and Deactivation

2015-2016 Cycle

• Usage: Your Safari Online Books license is valid for 1 year from the date you sign up, and must be used consistently: not going inactive for more than 120 days. Safari is working with Mozilla to drive usage up and to surface where the SBO has the biggest impact. We have a limited number of licenses and want to use them well.
• Deactivation: Messages regarding inactivity will be sent to users upon 65 days of inactivity, then again at 90 days, and at 120 days (4 months). If the user has not logged on after the last prompt, users will be disabled. Per Safari Book's contract rules, once a user is disabled, the user cannot reactivate their accounts until the contract is renewed in the next contract cycle on 10 June 2016. The only exception to this deactivation rule is if Mozilla expands the number of total licenses for 2015-2016 cycle.

2014-2015 Cycle

• Usage: Your Safari Online Books license is valid for 1 year from the date you sign up, and must be used consistently: not going inactive for more than 120 days. Safari is working with Mozilla to drive usage up and to surface where the SBO has the biggest impact. We have a limited number of licenses and want to use them well.
• Deactivation: Messages regarding inactivity will be sent to users upon 65 days of inactivity, then again at 90 days, and at 120 days (4 months). If the user has not logged on after the last prompt, users will be disabled. Per Safari Book's contract rules, once a user is disabled, the user cannot reactivate their accounts until the contract is renewed in the next contract cycle on 15 April 2015. There are two exceptions to this deactivation rule:
  • Exception 1: Legacy Users. Those users who were activated in the 2013-2014 cycle and place their name on the waiting list by 30 May 2014 will be given consideration for renewal. If no seats are available past 30 May 2014 to reactivate Legacy Users, consideration will be given in accordance with Exception 2.
  • Exception 2: Mozilla expands number of total licenses for 2014-2015 cycle.

2013-2014 Cycle

• Usage: Your Safari Online Books license is valid for 1 year from the date you sign up, unless Mozilla terminates its contract with this vendor. We encourage you to use Safari Books as much as possible when needed. Since this is an on-demand learning service, we cannot set strict guidelines on usage based on frequency of activity.
• Deactivation: Automatic deactivation will only happen if upon renewal of yearly contract with Safari Books Online, the user has not logged on in the past yearly cycle. If you find your account was deactivated following this protocol, please sign up for a new account again.

Wait List

• Please use the following wait list if you need a new account or if you you want your account reactivated. Link to wait list.

Relaunch Efforts

• 2014-2015 Cycle
  • Book clubs
  • Use cases
• 2013-2014 Cycle
  • The People Team has partnered with the Mozilla Reps to ensure that our volunteer contributors have the same benefits as our paid contributors (employees).
  • The Safari Books Team will place a strong emphasis on the social learning aspect of the resource in order to supplement Mozilla's strong community of learning.

FAQ (built by users)

How do Kindle users download a book to read?

The Kindle can display a number of different file formats:

“The fourth/fifth generation Kindles, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G, and Kindle Paperwhite can display AZW, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC files natively. HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP are usable through conversion. ([1])

Safari Books offered three formats for the e-book that I wanted to download: PDF, MOBI and ePub. Of these MOBI seems to be the best option. MOBI and ePub are reflowable and richly formatted whereas PDF is fixed layout. ePub appears unsupported on the Kindle though it sounds like there are conversion programs out there.

I searched for and found the book I wanted to read, clicked “Download”, then selected the .MOBI format. NOTE: Not all e-books are downloadable. Then I plugged my Kindle into my computer, found the MOBI file I had downloaded and moved the it into the Kindle “Documents” folder. I turned on my Kindle and there was the book on my local device ready to read.

Context: I had already signed up for an account through ServiceNow. This info was gleaned from using a Mac and a 1st gen Kindle Paperwhite to download and display “JavaScript: The Good Parts” by Douglas Crockford, 2008 edition, [2].

Team Safari Books Online

End-User Services
servicedesk@mozilla.com

1. servicedesk